The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance apparatus having a patient bearing table with an interchangeable-panel receiving mechanism. The table can be utilized as an operating table.
Magnetic resonance (MR) apparatuses render sectional images of the human body with high soft-tissue contrast. MR images are used for planning neurosurgical operations. However, the problem arises that the brain shifts in the surgical opening of the skull (brain shift), whereby the operation plan becomes inexact. Given tumors which are imaged in the brain (not metastases), the problem exists that the surgeon usually cannot visually discern the boundaries of the tumor. MR displays these boundaries, for example, based on the destruction of the blood-brain barrier in the case of tumors. This destruction permits the passage of the contrast agent Gd-DTPA. For this reason, magnetic resonance apparatuses are increasingly being employed during the operations in order to correct "brain shift" after the opening of the skull, or to determine if all malignant tissues have been removed following a tumor resection.
Due to their accessibility, for the most part only magnetic resonance apparatuses with relatively low field have been used. However, the achievable image quality is limited here, and the measuring times for a fully anesthetized patient are quite long. What are known as high field magnetic resonance apparatuses with fields above 1 Tesla offer a higher image quality and rather short measuring times, and additional information is available such as functional imaging, perfusion, diffusion and blood flow area. However, such high-field magnetic resonance apparatuses are based on superconductive magnets in which the patient is inserted into a poorly accessible tube. Operations can only be carried out at a face end of the tube under relatively crowded conditions. Working within the magnet system requires a specific expensive operating instrument, which cannot interact with either the magnetic field or with the high-frequency fields. The instrument also must not be influenced by these, and must not itself exert an influence on the magnet system which degrades the imaging.